Depth of Field: F-Stop and Aperture Settings

…Here we are in the beautiful location to capture some photographs and…to talk about depth of field.…You know, I've biked by this spot so many times, I've always wanted to capture and…image here, because I love the lavender field and also all of these olive trees.…In a sense, this spot is a bit of an oasis because surprisingly,…it's located next to a busy street and some construction just across the way.…But here we'll focus on this oasis.…And in this case, we'll look at how we can use a shallow depth of field.…Now, in this location, we don't really need shallow,…because the background looks pretty good.…

It isn't a need, it's more of a want.…Here it's about trying to create a beautiful look.…And what we'll do is we'll talk about a few different topics.…Like how we can work with different aperture settings,…how we can use focal lengths.…And also, how we can change the distance of our camera to the subject in order to…craft or create different looks.…All right.…Well, let's begin by talking about aperture.…All right.…

Resume Transcript Auto-Scroll

Author

Released

9/16/2014

The photographic gear that will most directly affect the way your portraits look? It's not the camera. It's the lens. Photographer, author, and educator Chris Orwig compares and contrasts wide-angle, "normal," and telephoto lenses, with the goal of helping you choose the right lens for both the subject of your portrait and the message you want to convey. Along the way, he shoots photos with different lenses, at different angles and different depths of field, and shares the results so you can actually see how these choices impact the final photographs. Plus, Chris shares his recommendations on finding the lens that's right for you, with a review of some common prime and zoom lenses.

Topics include:

How sensor size affects focal length

Shooting with different focal lengths

Shooting at the best angle for your lens

Understanding how f-stop, focal length, and camera distance affect depth of field